SHORTLY AFTER ENOCH Burke was released from prison for Christmas, he once again took up a position outside the school he was arrested for trespassing at. 

As students returned for the new school year, Burke and his family members again misrepresented the events that began their conflict with the school and the law.

“Teacher Enoch Burke was imprisoned for over 500 days after refusing to use they/them pronouns for a child,” Enoch’s brother Josiah wrote on Facebook on Christmas Eve.

He also wrote that the controversy never was started due to “a command to endorse the ‘transition’ of this child from male to female”.

The same claim was repeated on January 9 when Josiah published a video featuring Enoch and their mother, Martina, protesting outside the school.

In the video and accompanying post, it was claimed that Enoch had “been forced by the school to stand outdoors in freezing temperatures, simply because he would not endorse transgenderism and use they/them pronouns for a child.”

None of these claims are true. Burke was neither imprisoned nor suspended from work for refusing to endorse “transgender ideology”, nor is anyone “forcing” him to stand in the cold – in fact the school and courts have been clear that they would rather he wouldn’t.

In 2022, Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath sought an injunction after Burke turned up at school while suspended. 

Burke – who taught at the school – is alleged to have interrupted a church service held to mark the school’s 260th anniversary before following the principal around. 

He is said to have loudly questioned her about a request she made for teachers to address a transgender student by their preferred pronouns.

The school initiated a disciplinary process against Burke over the incident, resulting in him being placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the process.

However, when Burke continued to show up at the school, Wilson’s asked for a court order because its board told the High Court in 2022 that he was not abiding by the terms of his suspension and that he was disrupting the school and its students.

Burke continued to turn up at Wilson’s, prompting the school to ask the courts to take further action; he was finally jailed for contempt of court in September 2022 when he turned up at the school for breaking yet another injunction.

Following this first arrest, some newspapers and social media posts claimed incorrectly that Burke had been arrested for refusing to call a transgender student at the school by their preferred pronoun.

Several articles and headlines did not convey that Burke was actually arrested for breaking an order given by the High Court to stay away from the school.

Some of these headlines have since been removed or amended, in some cases prompted by a factcheck article published by The Journal (media coverage of the case since then has generally been more accurate).

Burke had been released from prison multiple times, without purging his contempt, when school was off because judges noted his potential presence would be less disruptive.

Enoch Burke was jailed most recently last September following an allegation by the school that he entered the school building to attend a staff meeting.

He was released shortly before Christmas last year, though he quickly resumed his protest outside the school.

Judge Nolan said that the state’s scarce resources should be used to jail people who should be imprisoned and that Burke was in prison because he chose to be.

Judge Nolan described Burke’s arguments that the state and the school where he worked are trying to abolish religious liberty or force him to act in a manner inconsistent with his religious beliefs as “entirely misguided, and at times, ridiculous”.

The courts have also been clear that Burke can purge his contempt by agreeing to stay away from the school.

In other words, his legal troubles can end without him having to accept “transgender ideology” or refer to trans people by their chosen pronouns.

However, some coverage of the case continues to incorrectly report that Burke was imprisoned for refusing to call a child by their preferred pronoun, particularly on foreign language social media.

With reporting from David MacRedmond and Aodhan O Faolain

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